I recently met a friend, the chief of anesthesia for a major hospital, for dinner. His department is in the midst of a highly challenged IT project deployment, and he is upset. "Why don't the IT people give us a timely warning of impending problems?" he asked. "Our patient-tracking project went from 'everything is fine' to a complete halt within a week." He had scheduled 20 people for two days of training, rearranged vacations and hired temporary backup staff at considerable expense and inconvenience. "IT people need to monitor project vital signs and give their customers ample early warning," he said. He's absolutely right.

Race car pit crews, physicians and airline pilots routinely monitor vital signs to track the condition and status of their projects. Not so in IT. Ironically, the professionals whose fundamental tenet is to produce information for their clients often lack accurate information about the status of their own projects. By the time sponsors realize their projects are in trouble, it can be too late to take corrective action. To aid project managers and sponsors, we have devised a list of vital signs for gathering timely project intelligence. These signs are grouped in-to four categories:

• Strategic Vital Signs
• Tactical Vital Signs
• Environmental Vital Signs
• Operational Vital Signs